bemoaning?
CLARISSA: I see proof all right. Proof that even a series of miseries, some so creative in their pestilence that even the cruelest soothsayer would decline to say them, is nevertheless preferable to what follows.
ADAM: I don’t…
CLARISSA: Besides what we’re saying is inapplicable to Charles. Charles is just going through a rough patch not the end. Nestor and Ludwig will return with news and once so informed we’ll get Charles the treatment he needs. Illness and wellness reside on the same side of the coin it’s just a question of giving that coin the proper flip. I want you to understand this point fully and memorably so I’m going to tell you a story.
ADAM: No thanks, just tell me the point.
CLARISSA: I’m going to, through the use of a story.
ADAM: That’s just it. Don’t want the story, just the point.
CLARISSA: What are you a savage? If I want you to know, really know , my parents were cheap growing up I don’t just flat say they were cheap do I? I say they treated nickels like manhole covers then tell you the story of how we had to bathe in the rain at our country house because they didn’t want to pay extra for water. That’s elemental.
ADAM: That’s not cheap by the way, that’s psychotic.
CLARISSA: So here’s what happened. She was the kind of person who spoke to those closest to her primarily by making sure they overheard her remarks to others. The day we begin she had just returned from…
( Nestor and Ludwig are returning, we cannot hear Clarissa’s story. Nestor addresses Ludwig outside the hearing of the others. )
NESTOR: I sympathize with your human need to share, to enlist allies in a difficult spot, but I’m going to ask you to selflessly not share…
LUDWIG: You mean not selfishly share?
NESTOR: . . . and keep what we’ve discovered between ourselves.
LUDWIG: What have we discovered?
NESTOR: Yes that, keep it between ourselves.
LUDWIG: I don’t know what we’ve discovered. I wouldn’t even know how to begin to explain, other than to say something like everything we thought was true is somehow neither true nor false and those things we deemed most irrelevant or its converse are not even susceptible to that kind of categorization.
NESTOR: Exactly, can you imagine the reaction?
LUDWIG: But.
NESTOR: You’re our leader.
LUDWIG: Since when?
NESTOR: And leadership requires a certain kind of courage. What a person doesn’t know is always more important than what he does know and not just because it’s orders of magnitude larger. Think of all you would unknow if you could, you know?
LUDWIG: No.
NESTOR: Exactly.
LUDWIG: They have a right to know.
NESTOR: You just said you don’t know what you know. No?
LUDWIG: I know, but I also know they have a right to know what I don’t know.
NESTOR: No.
LUDWIG: No?
NESTOR: No. They’ll be looking to you more for a mood than any particular bit of information. Don’t concern yourself so much with the content of what you say as with how you say it. This upcoming speech of yours will in large part determine…
LUDWIG: I’m giving a speech now?
NESTOR: . . . how our friends view their predicament.
LUDWIG: Why would I give a speech?
NESTOR: Not why, how. And I’ll tell you. Summon your highest powers because the only thing this crowd respects is rhetorical excess.
LUDWIG: Not how, why?
NESTOR: Why, ( motioning with his chin toward Clarissa and Adam ) would you look at that?
LUDWIG: What?
NESTOR: Nothing. Couldn’t have been more wrong I guess. Meaning when I repeatedly scoffed that love at first sight was as mythical as unicorns or virtuous women.
LUDWIG: What are you talking about?
NESTOR: About those two. I change my mind maybe once a decade but these two have me doing it hourly.
LUDWIG: Change how?
NESTOR: Well surely you saw what
CLARISSA: I see proof all right. Proof that even a series of miseries, some so creative in their pestilence that even the cruelest soothsayer would decline to say them, is nevertheless preferable to what follows.
ADAM: I don’t…
CLARISSA: Besides what we’re saying is inapplicable to Charles. Charles is just going through a rough patch not the end. Nestor and Ludwig will return with news and once so informed we’ll get Charles the treatment he needs. Illness and wellness reside on the same side of the coin it’s just a question of giving that coin the proper flip. I want you to understand this point fully and memorably so I’m going to tell you a story.
ADAM: No thanks, just tell me the point.
CLARISSA: I’m going to, through the use of a story.
ADAM: That’s just it. Don’t want the story, just the point.
CLARISSA: What are you a savage? If I want you to know, really know , my parents were cheap growing up I don’t just flat say they were cheap do I? I say they treated nickels like manhole covers then tell you the story of how we had to bathe in the rain at our country house because they didn’t want to pay extra for water. That’s elemental.
ADAM: That’s not cheap by the way, that’s psychotic.
CLARISSA: So here’s what happened. She was the kind of person who spoke to those closest to her primarily by making sure they overheard her remarks to others. The day we begin she had just returned from…
( Nestor and Ludwig are returning, we cannot hear Clarissa’s story. Nestor addresses Ludwig outside the hearing of the others. )
NESTOR: I sympathize with your human need to share, to enlist allies in a difficult spot, but I’m going to ask you to selflessly not share…
LUDWIG: You mean not selfishly share?
NESTOR: . . . and keep what we’ve discovered between ourselves.
LUDWIG: What have we discovered?
NESTOR: Yes that, keep it between ourselves.
LUDWIG: I don’t know what we’ve discovered. I wouldn’t even know how to begin to explain, other than to say something like everything we thought was true is somehow neither true nor false and those things we deemed most irrelevant or its converse are not even susceptible to that kind of categorization.
NESTOR: Exactly, can you imagine the reaction?
LUDWIG: But.
NESTOR: You’re our leader.
LUDWIG: Since when?
NESTOR: And leadership requires a certain kind of courage. What a person doesn’t know is always more important than what he does know and not just because it’s orders of magnitude larger. Think of all you would unknow if you could, you know?
LUDWIG: No.
NESTOR: Exactly.
LUDWIG: They have a right to know.
NESTOR: You just said you don’t know what you know. No?
LUDWIG: I know, but I also know they have a right to know what I don’t know.
NESTOR: No.
LUDWIG: No?
NESTOR: No. They’ll be looking to you more for a mood than any particular bit of information. Don’t concern yourself so much with the content of what you say as with how you say it. This upcoming speech of yours will in large part determine…
LUDWIG: I’m giving a speech now?
NESTOR: . . . how our friends view their predicament.
LUDWIG: Why would I give a speech?
NESTOR: Not why, how. And I’ll tell you. Summon your highest powers because the only thing this crowd respects is rhetorical excess.
LUDWIG: Not how, why?
NESTOR: Why, ( motioning with his chin toward Clarissa and Adam ) would you look at that?
LUDWIG: What?
NESTOR: Nothing. Couldn’t have been more wrong I guess. Meaning when I repeatedly scoffed that love at first sight was as mythical as unicorns or virtuous women.
LUDWIG: What are you talking about?
NESTOR: About those two. I change my mind maybe once a decade but these two have me doing it hourly.
LUDWIG: Change how?
NESTOR: Well surely you saw what
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